My family is very much awake and I'm so proud of them all. My daughter, a high school senior, refuses to wear a mask. My wife preaches to all her friends the potential harm of the vax (and never, ever wears a mask). And I have left my job recently due to my firm pushing the vax - giving a big middle finger to the woke management team that run my company on my way out (and hopefully waking up a few colleagues in the process).
My son though is the leader of our pack when it comes to standing up to tyranny. He's an academic all American scholar athlete who plays football at a large University. The football program is a top 20 D1 team. All summer the coaching staff was pushing the vax. He and several of his teammates refused. Just before the season started the coaches threatened to cut players if they didn't get vaxed and he and a handful of teammates walked away, giving up their dream of playing big time D1 football. I'm so very proud of those young men.
As the semester progressed, now not playing football, he focused on his academics. Throughout the semester he was told he had to take weekly Covid tests since he wasn't vaxxed. He refused. He then started getting threatening emails that he would be kicked out of school if he didn't take his Covid test. He still refused. His professors preached daily, early in the semester, how everyone needed to get vaxxed. He didn't listen. He then was told that he couldn't sign up for classes next semester if he didn't take his Coved test. He didn't take any Covid tests - not one. He went through the semester with a cloud over his head thinking he may get kicked out of school - and still pulled straight A's in an intense engineering program.
The threats from the university were baseless as they ended up caving and they ultimately allowed him to sign up for next semester. He's been talking to the coaches of his football team and they want him back and they know his stance on the vax, and they still want him back.
Moral of the story...IT'S OK TO SAY NO! Don't give in! And never, ever do anything you are uncomfortable with. It will all work out in the end.
He sounds AMAZING.
I wish I could say the same about my siblings....
My program asked me to come back. I asked "did you change your policy or are you just violating your own rules to get me back?"
They said "uhhhh well we're still requiring the vaccine we're just willing to make an exception in this special circumstance".
I said with "oh well I have zero intention of coming back to a school which doesn't really believe in it's own rules, unfairly disadvantaging poor urban communities who aren't as valuable to you as I am, I'll come back when you stop enforcing systemic racism"
Good for you! Inspiring! Stand strong!! The reality is that the universities need us more than we need them. They'll cave eventually. In the meantime go out and enjoy life!